Dr. Don Krudop (www.donkrudop.com) has been at the Chorale podium since 2009. He is a life-long music educator, having taught for 48 years with the Virginia Beach City Public Schools system and at Virginia Wesleyan & Regent Universities. In addition to his work with the Chorale, he is Director of Music Ministries at Heritage United Methodist Church, also in Virginia Beach. Don was Director of the Commodore Chorus (Norfolk Chapter, Barbershop Harmony Society) and led them to both the Southern Division and Mid-Atlantic District Intermediate Chorus Championships, and sang tenor in the Southern Division champion and International quarter-finalist barbershop quartet, Old Dominion Line. His choirs at Salem High School and the Visual & Performing Arts Academy were recognized as being among the finest in the southeastern United States. He was the guest conductor for a week-long residency at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2024 and has been invited to return in 2027. Don has been honored to serve as guest conductor for All-Region, All-District, All-County, and All-City choirs throughout Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey.
 
Don holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education, Master of Music in Conducting, and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia as well as the Master of Education in Administration degree from Regent. While at Shenandoah, he studied conducting with Grammy-award-winning conductor Robert Shafer. He completed additional post-graduate studies at Westminster Choir College, George Washington University, and Old Dominion University, has sung under the direction of Aaron Copland, Weston Noble, and Eric Whitacre (Virtual Choir 6), and was a participant in the late Robert Shaw’s Carnegie Hall Choral Workshop. In May of 2025, he will be in the tenor section for a performance of John Rutter's Requiem in Carnegie Hall, New York City, under Maestro Rutter's baton.
 
Over the course of his career, Don was named Virginia's "Music Educator of the Year" by the Virginia Music Educators Association, was Salem High School’s "Teacher of the Year,” and was a national finalist for the Grammy Foundation's "Music Educator" award. He was a recipient of the Shenandoah University "Distinguished Alumni Award" for both Outstanding Career Achievement (2000) and for Lifetime Achievement (2023), and was recognized by Coastal Virginia magazine as one of Hampton Roads “Ten Top Educators." He is currently the Virginia ACDA Regional Coordinator for Southeastern Virginia, is a Past President of the Virginia Choral Directors Association, served as the Virginia American Choral Directors Association Repertoire and Standards chair for community choirs, and was a national chorus mentor for the National Association for Music Education. He is a VMEA-certified choral adjudicator and serves as a choral clinician and adjudicator for "Music in the Parks," "Festivals of Music", and CCIS Travel. Don is well-known as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. He offers two conducting workshops, "The Refreshed Conductor" and "The Expressive Conductor," and will be a featured clinician at the 2025 Eastern Division Conference of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) in Hartford, CT, where he will present his session "Sing from the Heart - Building the Emotionally Expressive Choir."​